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Saturday, December 6, 2014

After that 15 hours : An unexpected turnover

" So you both are working in same organization, and you came here due to her. Right ? I asked him.

“Yeah. Same company, same college, same class. We were class mates in college”

“Oh that's nice. Both are in same office too ?” I asked.

“Yeah. Same office ,but different building.” He said.

I smiled. He then looked around , trying to get attention of his friend. At the same time she rose from her seat and moved walked away towards the wash basin. Seconds later he turned back his head 180 degree to see her. She is still washing her face. He held up for her to come closer and when it happened ,he offered her his window seat in light of the fact that he thought she would like it.

“ No. I have mine.” she said as she moved towards her seat. Then that happened. Unexpectedly. She turned back, now more closer to him, then said “ Please give me my space. I don’t want anyone to be with me now. Please“. Then she looked at me and went back to her seat.

Ajaml sat there as a lost emperor. He looked at me. I gave him back a sorry look. I really did. He sat there as a person who lost everything. Not her reply but my presence at the time of the conversation made him extremely uncomfortable. I sensed the situation and act accordingly.

“ Which one is the coming station.? . Is it Katpadi ? .” I asked him. Tried to break the ice.

“ Ya . It is. “ He replied in a low voice, though not giving a proper eye contact.

“ I 'm feeling hungry. Have to eat something” . I said. He just smiled at me. It was a bad attempt to make him happy. So I kept quiet and opened my book again.

Minutes passed. The train achieved its best speed. Visuals from outside got to be obscured green in color. Each one is occupied with their own particular works. No one talking or listening to or appreciating the perspectives. They wouldn't fret the surroundings. Our young lady listening to music through her earphones, eyes shut, supporting her head on the wall of the cabin. She seems sad about what simply had happened. Her face says as much. My eyes meandered around the cabin.

A lame person who cannot walk because of his paralysed legs came to the cabin. Nobody care him. He continuously asking money to each one of them. Nobody replied. He then moved towards the man sitting over the lengthy seat. Neither he cared our person. At that point the crippled individual called that man by shaking his legs. His activity didn't satisfy our man. He got aggravated. " Take your hand off my body. " He shouted. " Sir..sir... " weak individual broadened his arms and kept on asking.

" What do you need. I don't have cash to give you ?".Gentleman seems too rude to him. “ These people wont allow us to walk freely. Fraud people they are. What do you want ?“ He continued. Lame person didn't reply ,instead he have him back a helpless look. “ I will call police. What do you want ?” .The man repeated his question. Now the lame person seems little distracted .“ I want to stand like you. Can you made me so ? “ He replied and left him.

Suddently our girl stood from her seat and gave him 20 ruppees. The gentleman sitting there was stunned by that scene. "Don't encourage them. That too 20 ruppees!!" Said the gentle man.
"Its ok. " She said "Its my 20th birth-day today. How much money we used to spend for birthday celebration. Let it go for a good thing this time."

Ashish and I were watching these scenes. We looked each other in surprise after hearing disabled person's reply. We both felt sorry for him. That was enough to trigger another conversation between us. We started talking again and it was around 5:15, I asked one question which in turn made my day an awesome one. “ Is she your girlfriend? “ . I asked.

“More than that. But not now. It's in a complex stage now. You saw before.Right? “. He said.

“ Yeah. Why was that?. She is angry with you? “ . I asked again.

"Yeah. Nothing went right that day. Its a long story." .He said.

"What is the issue really ? ". I asked.

" Its began from me just. Anyhow I never suspected that things will change as it did. Not Even in my most exceedingly awful dreams. Anyhow everything slipped far from me. She seems like she is fed up with my relation. Its my bad. “

" How long you both are in connection? " .I asked, More inquisitive now

" Eight months. Yet it began long back. When I was in school. " Ashish answered with a little grin on his lips. That was the beginning of a big lengthy narration. The most talkative person sitting opposite to me started his adventurous story.most chatty individual opposite inverse to me began his bold story.

(Ashish's personal narration)

plus two marks were not enough to get an admission into TKM college of engineering. Kerala's second ranked engineering college. My father wanted me to study there.

After a lot of battles and troubles he made me a seat in CS branch. Not my mark, but my father's money gave me a chance to try my luck. For me, it was an adventurous task. First day first class, One person came and introduced himself as our advisor and gave a lengthy speech about tradition and its values. Nothing was listenable for me. My mind was preoccupied with various other things. Our advisor went on. Even he wasn't sure what he was talking about.

Later he asked us to introduce our self to the class. One by one introduction went on. I was sitting at the fourth bunch of middle raw. I planed sentences to say and sat there well prepared.

“ My name is Susan Jose. Eh.. I completed my plus two in Dubai. My home town is eranaklulam and now I am staying here in WWH hostel “. One girl from the bench in Front of mine introduced herself.

“Proper Ernakulam or... You have to be specific. Ernakulam is a big town, right!! “ The faculty asked her back.

“Not proper Ernakulam. Its 'Thiruvandoor'. She replied. That place was quite familiar to me because its my birth place. Actually, she didn’t pronounce it correctly. So

I corrected in a loud enough voice

“ Its Thiruvanvandoor. Not Thiruvandoor.”. I said it from behind.

“ Yeah. Right. Its thiruvanvandoor.” She said and turned back towards me with an awesome smile. I still remember that moment. That was the moment I first saw her face.

I felt as if I found some treasure. The rest of the class I was thinking about the various ways through which I can talk to her. “We are from the same place. She will talk to me After this class. She will come and ask me how I know that place. I will take that as a chance and build a friendship with her”. My thoughts wandered

through a sequence of impossible, but beautiful dreams.She came to me after that class and spoke with me for a good five minutes. I couldn't find a single mistake in her. Her dressing, talking, laughing, nodding...every thing I liked about her. She absolutely made my day wonderful.

Coming days, I tried whatever I could to impress her, at least to talk to her. But her reactions weren't positive. She seems more like a person who doesn't like to Keep relations with boys. So I didn’t invest much time behind her. 'Let her go' I thought, as I turned my focus on other girls. My hard works gave me a result, in the form of another chocolate coloured girl, Aswini, my workshop lab partner.

Hostel friends

Weeks passed by. Nothing changed in the middle of she and myself. Indeed me and aswini got to be all the more closer. My hostel life was additionally improving step by step. I got a little loop of companions over yonder. The majority of the friends were from mechanical. We used our night times sitting together, talking delicate things, consuming together ans so on. Vineeth, Rohit , Laxman, Nair.. the list goes on..As days passed by our discussions shifted from gentle things to natural boys topics. Especially the topic we would like to discuss just after one month in college. The Girls!. Each has their own views.

“ Dude, our class is rich with girls. Man...its a heaven. Beautiful structured girls man.. den etc etc etc.. “ .Vineeth commented as if he could not believe what he was experiencing

“Electronics !! F***. Nothing is there man. Not at all impressive. Not even a single piece“. Ramesh cried.

“ Ashish, How is Susan Jose.? “. His words was kind of a stab on me. I struggled for words to reply him. How do he know her!!. I wondered.

“I don't know much. She is good. Much like a studious girl“. I replied.

“She said that you are always behind a girl. Is that so? “. He asked.

“ Oh. Did she say so ?. .. “ I replied but instead of answering his question I fired him an other question.

“ How do you know her ? What did she say about me ? “. I asked.

“ Don't worry man. We both are from same school, We know each other since 8th standard . Yesterday I saw her and asked about you. She said you are too talkative. She doesn't like talkative people. I think that is the reason why she said so“. He explained.

I felt lost. Not because of his conversation with Rohit. But because the way she disliked me. “Being a talkative person is not that bad. Why did she think so. If she

didn’t like it, it is her problem not mine. “ . I thought as I went back to my room.

An unexpected turn over.

We usually spend our whole lab sections by doing nothing. That day Susan with her partner Micah chose (accidentally chosen I should say) our desk to do the lab. Each table has materials for two groups. We four started our work. I kept silence. Aswini started explaining the experiment and I listened. I dint give Susan a look. Not even a single time. Aswini continued to explain and I hardly replied. She smelled something wrong about me but didn't ask anything. We finished our work around 30 minutes ahead of 1'o clock. Lunch interval is at 1. So I moved closer to Aswini and looked into her phone. She showed me some pics of her cousins and parents.

Suddenly Susan and Micah adjusted their chairs in order to see the pics. She went through some pics and later skipped to some other topics. They talked about different topics in which most of them were from my interested areas. But I kept quiet. Aswini noticed that and she asked accordingly.

“Any problem ?. Why are you moody today ? What happened ? “ She asked three questions in a raw.

I took a breath and said. One lengthy answer for all the three questions. “ No yaar. People thinks I am always behind you. And they don’t like talkative people. So its better to be silent in front of them. Right ? “. I said and left my chair. Aswini sat there as if she heard something Unwanted. Whereas Susan's face was same as I expected. Shocked.

Remaining 10 minutes I spent with some of my hostel mates and at the end of the period, I said bye to aswini and prepared to leave. When I opened the glass door to leave the lab, I felt something on my shoulder. It was she. She tapped On my shoulder to get my attention. I found myself a place on the corner of the corridor. She followed me and asked.

“ Was that because of me ?”

“What do you think. “. I replied

“Who told you ? “

“Why should I say?. Just think. You will get it.” I replied.

“ I don’t know who said that to you. You should tell”. She argued.

“ Oh. You can't even identify that person. That means you said those things to many people. Did you ? “. I said. “ Just think of that sentences you said about me.”

She kept silence for a second or so, then she opened her mouth.

“ How do you know Rohit ? “.

“He is my hostel mate. “. I replied.

“I dint mean that..actually I just said... “.She struggled in front of me to get words. She didn’t even complete here sentence. Then It was me who acted quickly.

That was the beginning of a lengthy conversation with her. Susan Jose from Dubai talked to me around 45 minutes that night. Her studies,family, School, friends...From her messages I realized that what Rohit said is correct. I found something interesting in her topic. Each of her reply’s were clever. She dint talk much about any of the topic. At last, she said a goodnight and I replied the same with one more sentence, a question actually.

Me: Gdnt. How did u get ma numbr ?.

I waited for her reply but it took five minutes to get. That was the beautiful message from her so far.

"Aswini gave me. Pls dont give this to anyone else. I dont want it to b with anyone else."

No. I wont give. I replied.

I cant explain how happy I was that day. Those few words from her was like a surprise gift for me. I read the message again and again. You may not find that much stuff in that message. But for me it was like a heavy rain fall in a desert. That was the longest night of my life. For the first time in my life, I waited for the

morning to come fast. For the first time in my life I waited hours and hours to start next day's class. I felt important that day.

It was the beginning of a remarkable friendship between Susan Jose and myself. I put in a lot of effort to make it a rememberable one. As i already mentioned, it had started from three-four SMS,however soon ,I was in a situaion where I wouldnt stir from my bed until I recieved a good morning message from Susan. Most of my days started with her messages and came to an end with her goodnight. I couldn't hide my friendship from others, especially my roommates. They recognised the changes that came in me after I had started messaging her. Friends,they just know everything, Sometimes they will do you some help also,some uncalled for helps.

My roommates told this well kept secret to a person in the next room. He presented it infront of our group,my hostel goup. From the very next day, they started teasing her with my name whenever they saw Susan. Whenever susan walked near to us, They used to call out , "Ashish..AShish". I pleaded them to stop that. But my begging was like an encouragement for them. They did it again. "Susan is definitely going to stop messaging me". I thought. I sat impatiently in the last period of the day. My thoughts lingered about Susan and the incidents that had happened . I watched her from my back seat. Studious Susan was sitting at the front seat taking notes. She seemed least worried about the things happened just hours before.the most boring class was going on-Basic Mechanical engineering. "Why should CS sudents learn mechanical? "I thought . I looked at Shahal,Shahid and Ranjith.

( I fogot to introduce them. They are my roommates. All three are from calicut... that is enough

for now). Shahid is sleeping on the desk as if it were his birth right. Shahal is awake but looked like a drunken person,shaking his head, looking around,and cursing himself for attending that class. Poor ranjith was sitting in the first bench. Ranjith was short so the teachers insisted that he should sit in the front. My attention shifted to Susan again. My princess was listening carefully. "Susan... how can you listen that boring lecture.". I wanted to ask her. I watched her. " I wouldn't want to lose her at any cost. ". I reminded myself.

Suddenly, the person who performed the stage show so far in front of the class asked a question.

"What is the difference between a 2 stroke and a four stroke engine ? " Question to the first person sitting at the left row, first bench.

" Four stoke engine has four strokes where as two stroke has only two". He answered.

"Wow..is it.?. I didnt know that. Where are you from ? ". Sir asked him

"Kottayam. "

"I thought people from kottayam were clever.Looks like they are not...Ok.You stand there..next person" He said.

Next student got up said: " Pass".

Sir asked him the same question. "Where are you from. ".

From the back seat, i could see people standing up one by one, no one was sitting nor answering. He was asking the same question to the people who didnt answer." Where are you from?". Half of the people were already standing now. I looked at Shahid. He was still sleeping peacefully. No one even bothered to wake him up. "So why should I". I turned towards Shahal and asked

" Da.. what is the difference...What shall we say?"

" Ey man.. I dont even know which subect is going on. This four stoke two stroke is mecahnical right?" .He replied.

I looked aound.and saw people getting up ony by one like a chain reaction, one after the other. I called Shahid. I woke him up from his sleep. His eyes were red enough to get an idea about what he was doing so fa. Finally it was our turn. the question was first put to shahal. He stood and said

"Four stroke is for four wheelers and two stroke is for two wheelers."

" Where are you from ? " Sir asked.

"Calicut "

" No comments. Next". He said

Next was my turn. I stood and give him a pleasant smile. He didnt smile back. I continued to smile because I dint have any thing else to do.

" Please stop showing your teeth and tell me the answer if you have one. "

"No sir" I replied " I couldn't listen the class as I was not feeling well". I said that with an extreemly tired face. I don't know why, He asked me to sit down. I told you, na..I have a great capability to bent any topic in my favour. I can make people belive me. I can earn someone's trust easily.

With that he turned to shahid who was already on his feet.

Shahid stood up even before his chance arrived because he knew for sure that I wouldnt answer that. Sir had already noticed Shahid sleeping in beween the class .

Shahid stood and said directly, not even trying to answer the question, without the least trouble.

" I am from calicut sir".

" That means that you dont know the asnwer. right? "

" Yes. I dont know."

"Ok..good... ehhh...Your good name please. " .He asked.

" Shahid sir." .He called out as if he were standing in a military camp.

"OK.. Shaihd, What was my question?".

Shahid didnt have any thing to say, He was sleeping till seconds before. He didn't know what the question was.